GLSA 200909-13: irssi: Execution of arbitrary code

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	high
Title:	irssi: Execution of arbitrary code
Date:	09/12/2009
Bugs:	#271875
ID:	200909-13

Synopsis

A remotely exploitable off-by-one error leading to a heap overflow was found in irssi which might result in the execution of arbitrary code.

Background

irssi is a modular textUI IRC client with IPv6 support.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
net-irc/irssi	< 0.8.13-r1	>= 0.8.13-r1	All supported architectures

Description

Nemo discovered an off-by-one error leading to a heap overflow in irssi's event_wallops() parsing function.

Impact

A remote attacker might entice a user to connect to a malicious IRC server, use a man-in-the-middle attack to redirect a user to such a server or use ircop rights to send a specially crafted WALLOPS message, which might result in the execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running irssi.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All irssi users should upgrade to the latest version:

    # emerge --sync
    # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-irc/irssi-0.8.13-r1"

References

CVE-2009-1959

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200909-13.xml

Concerns?

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to security@gentoo.org or alternatively, you may file a bug at https://bugs.gentoo.org.